Fears Covid limits will lock people out of mass at Christmas
PRIESTS are worried they will have to turn people away from Christmas services due to a cap on attendances of just 50 people.
While delighted they will be able to reopen the doors of their churches tomorrow for mass, a number of priests said they faced a logistical challenge at what is the busiest time of the year. The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, said sacrifices were being made “for the protection of health and life – especially for our elderly and other vulnerable family members”.
But in Westport, Fr Charlie McDonnell, administrator of St Mary’s Church, stressed there was “huge anxiety” among a lot of priests at the prospect of having to turn people away. However, Fr Michael Moynihan, who oversees six parishes as parish priest of St Mary’s Church in Dingle, Co Kerry, and moderator of Annascaul, said he would be operating a booking system in Christmas week.
PRIESTS are worried they will have to turn people away from Christmas services with a cap of 50 people allowed.
While delighted that they will be able to reopen the doors of their churches tomorrow for Mass, a number of priests said they faced a logistical challenge at what is the busiest time of the year for parishes.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland noted that public health officials had said the restrictions would help to ‘save Christmas’ or ensure people can have a ‘meaningful Christmas’.
Archbishop Eamon Martin said sacrifices were being made “for the protection of health and life – especially for our elderly and other vulnerable family members”.
But in Westport, Fr Charlie McDonnell, administrator
of St Mary’s Church, said: “Christmas poses a dilemma – we have to think outside the box.”
He told the Irish Independent that prior to the pandemic, his parish in Mayo would ordinarily be catering for up to 6,000 people between three churches over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
“Our biggest mass of the year would be the Family Mass on Christmas Eve where we could have up to 1,500.”
Under the Government’s Christmas guidelines, he reckons that even with additional masses, just 400 people will be able to attend in person.
“We would be saying masses every half hour for two days [if we were to try to accommodate the usual numbers for Christmas mass] which would be impossible because of the need to clean and sanitise the church after each mass.
“We will be at about 8-9pc capacity for Christmas, it is a nightmare. We are hoping to solve it as best we can by making Christmas services online as interactive and inclusive as we can.”
He stressed that there was “huge anxiety” among a lot of priests at the prospect of having to turn people away. “We’re just not sure about the logistics of a booking system – the fairness of it or the fairness of a ‘first come, first served’ system.”
However, Fr Michael Moynihan, who oversees six parishes as parish priest of St Mary’s Church in Dingle, Co Kerry, and moderator of Annascaul, said he would be operating a booking system in Christmas week.
“We will be asking people to contact the parish office and give their name and they will be assigned a number for a specific Mass which they’ll present to stewards at the church door.”
Fr Moynihan said that the cap of 50 people meant that the parish in Dingle was looking at spreading Christmas Masses out from Monday to Thursday ahead of Christmas Day on Friday.
“We are trying to encourage people to come to Mass early in the week because it will be impossible to get everybody into the church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. While a lot of people have accessed our webcam, most would like to try to be there physically for Christmas.”
St Mary’s in Dingle can accommodate 800 people. “To be limited to 50 people in a church that can hold 800 is a bit disappointing. We could fit about 140 comfortably keeping two metres distancing. There could be two pods of 50 in the church without any risk.”
According to Fr McDonnell, churches need clarification over whether the cap of 50 is the total number allowed into a church, irrespective of its size, or whether larger churches can accommodate pods of 50 keeping four metres’ distance.
In the parish of Caherconlish-Caherline in Co Limerick, parish priest Fr Roy Donovan said he and his parish pastoral council were “struggling to come up with a way of capturing the spirit of the Christmas night” with only 50 people in the church. “How do you refuse people entry on this joyous night?”
Fr Donovan admits: “We are going to miss being amongst 400 joyous people. We are going to miss the children who are beyond themselves with excitement, dying to get home, awaiting the obvious wonderment of what is about to come.”